Inauguration Thoughts

Today's post is about breaking free from cynicism. I decided to follow then President Elect Obama's suggestion to spend Martin Luther King Jr.s Holiday doing service. I went on-line and found a clean up project near my home. I spent a couple of hours picking up trash by the side of a popular park. On the way, I met a mother who was doing the same with her 10 year old daughter, Morgan, who walked up to me and said "can you walk with us," and I said I could. Morgan had one of those hinged grabbing devices for picking up garbage, and she ran ahead of me, putting cigarette butts, candy wrappers and assorted paper into my plastic bag. As I held Morgan's hand crossing the street under a clear beautiful Northwestern sky, I counted my blessings and felt pride in being an American I haven't felt for years.

I, like many others, found it hard to express the emotions I felt as Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America. Here was another chance for me to let go of the cynic inside. I could have dismissed the newly elected President's inaugural address as mere rhetoric. Instead, I listened to it as he passionately and eloquently rebuffed the previous administrations efforts to compromise liberty for security, chastised the Washington establishment for sleeping at the switch in terms of our economy and proclaimed that America would again assert itself as a leader among nations. Like many, I felt like the new President was speaking right to me when he said:
"What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them -- that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works -- whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. Those of us who manage the public dollars will be held to account -- to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day -- because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government."
President Obama seemed to be channeling Lincoln, FDR, JFK and George Washington as he challenged all of us to do better than we've done before. The Seattle Post Intelligencer printed the entire Inauguration Speech, here is the link http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/396887_inaugtext21.html

So I plan to keep doing what I'm doing, getting up early every morning to work out, praying and meditating, putting in an honest day and serving others as best I can at work, playing music, blogging and cartooning in my free time and getting on my knees at night to thank God for how blessed I am. If I keep that up, I'm hopefully not going to have enough time to be cynical.

Following up on a New Year's Resolution

I wrote in a previous post of my resolution to drop 5% of my body fat this year. I actually didn't have a clue what my body fat percentage was when I wrote that piece, nor was I sure how realistic dropping 5% for a guy like me was.

Friday, I purchased a body composition analysis from Brian and his mobile body fat testing lab www.BodyFatTest.com. It's a mobile lab in a semi-trailer truck with a submersion tank in it. Brian had me strip to my bathing suit, submerge myself in the tank and blow as much air as I could out of my lungs. He took four measurements to assure accuracy, then a computer spits out a fairly impressive body composition summary. I had a couple of pieces of good news. First one is, I'm taller than I thought I was (5 ft. 11 and a quarter inches). Second, my body fat for my age is closer to Good, placing me in the 55th percentile. If I want to drop 5% of my body fat, that would bring me to a weight of 176.5, but that is if all of the weight I lose is fat and not muscle.

I was disappointed in what the BodyFatTest.com website had to offer. The site is pretty much a vehicle to sell a nutritional book and promote the franchising of the mobile testing labs. So, lacking direction from the site on how to achieve my body fat goal, I did some research and came up with a plan of my own.

My plan to break free from 5% of my body fat is to continue to hit the gym 4 to 5 days a week. I've been going first thing when I wake up in the morning. I sometimes don't get the 8.5 hours of sleep my body craves, but the endorphins and sense of accomplishment I feel for the rest of the day make up for it. I am using Bill Wilson's Body for Life www.bodyforlife.com workout, and it works well for me. I might work with a trainer as the year goes on, but I seem to be progressing well at this stage with the BFL workouts. I'm also consulting a nutritionist to help me eat the foods that will help me meet my goal. Finally, I'm rewarding myself with a massage at the end of each month as an incentive.

So What to Write About- how about the BBB?

I decided to call this blog, "musings about breaking free." I am going to choose a topic each day and attempt to relate it to the theme of freedom. I just read Penelope Trunk's blog blog.penelopetrunk.com and decided to try one of her tips, which is to link to sites that get a lot more traffic than you do.

Have you ever been upset about the way you were treated by a business? Who hasn't been, right? I used to get mad. I used to boycott businesses. I would make a point of telling my friends and acquaintances not to frequent the establishment. Whenever a business failed to meet my expectations, I would expend a tremendous amount of energy trying to get even, usually with little effect other than stealing some of my serenity and peace away.

A few years ago, I discovered the Better Business Bureau's www.bbb.org online complaint system. The site is simple. You can use any information you have about the business to find it in the BBB's database (name, phone number, address, website, etc.) From there the site directs you to the BBB office that deals with complaints from that part of the country (for instance, the Pacific Northwest). You are prompted to identify what type of complaint it is (customer service, billing dispute, refund, etc.) The site allows you to write a short narrative about what happened and also a suggested remedy. You submit your answers, and that's it.

I just filed a complaint against a well known on-line travel services company (I'll call it company X) on Monday (two days ago). My partner and I had made reservations to stay in a hotel on Christmas eve, but the snow kept us from traveling. We called the hotel and X and we were told by both that, due to the circumstances, we could call back after the holidays and reschedule the date. When I called back after the holidays, the customer service workers from X (first names only, from Central America) told me that we would have had to reschedule on Christmas eve, and since we did not, we were out of luck. I asked for the person's supervisor, was given the same answer and hung up the phone. Within 30 minutes I had made a complaint to the Better Business Bureau. Because I have had so much success with the BBB, I didn't give it another thought. I went on with my day. Today, two days later, I looked at my bank account and there was a credit of $301.87 for the room refund from Company X.

Why does it work? It works because businesses are rated by the Better Business Bureau and they care about keeping their ratings high. Most major companies have staff in the role of resolving BBB complaints, and they are given authority to grant refunds, store credit, whatever it takes to make the complaint go away.

Here is a short list of some of the remedies I have received from BBB complaints:

Sprint- six months of cell phone service over a disputed bill
Dania Furniture- a new frame for a defective hide a bed/ couch
Nordstrom's- refund for defective athletic shoes
Banana Republic- store credit for defective merchandise

I don't advocate abusing companies for no reason with the Better Business Bureau, but if you want to break free of the feeling that you have no power in the business world, don't forget the Better Business Bureau.

Goals for 2009

I've been reading a blog called "Get Rich Slowly." www.getrichslowly.org/blog I haven't cashed in my morals for a dash toward complete materialism. I've decided that I want to start building a financial safety net that isn't predicated on any one income source. This blog and others like it are good sources of practical information about paying off debt, building income from multiple streams and transitioning to financial independence. I've been inspired by what I've read, so I have decided to set some goals, financial and otherwise for 2009.

1- Pay off all of my debt. That includes the amount I currently owe the credit union on my car

2- Re-establish a web site that allows me to promote my various interests, music, photography, writing, mediation, etc.

3- Decrease my body fat by 5%. I don't even know how doable this is, but I am more concerned about lowering my body fat than I am about losing weight.

4- Finish my recording project and release a CD of music.

5- Start a new business income stream that brings in at least $150.00 a month by the end of the year.

That's it. I think that's enough. I'm excited about what 2009 may bring. I'm feeling grateful for the life I have today, and that seems to be one of the keys to happiness.