Why you should never separate God and business/work.

Alright, y'all know I'm a strong Christian.

We also know that I haven't always been a strong Christian. 

There was a time in my life where I wouldn't talk about God, anywhere. Except in my own house or a church.

I was what we call a Sunday Christian. 

You see God opened my eyes. He told me that it was all right to talk about him at work. 

He showed me that people would be interested in learning about him no matter where I was.

He showed me all of my social platforms are great areas to talk about him and that others want to know about him too.

I had somebody call me the other day and they said, “Dan I would love to have the courage and strength that you do when it comes to talking about God.” 

I asked him what they were talking about. 

They said, "Well, you're not afraid to talk about God anywhere! You put verses at the bottom of your web pages. You claim him in every aspect of your life. You give him full credit for everything that's ever happened to you."

They brought up something that never crossed my mind. I give God credit for everything. I'm not scared of him. I'm not scared to admit that I know him, that I love him, and I know that he uses me. 

You see I know that God exists and I know that God works in my business, the same as  he works and so many other businesses around the world. 

God wants us to succeed, he wants us to prosper, he wants us to win. 

Why would you take away the best thing that could ever happen to your business by being scared that a customer might leave if you talk about God?

Think about what you can do to keep God in your life. Think about what you can do to add him to your business, to add him to your work life.  I encourage you to go out and be a HOT Chirstian, not a lukewarm one!

Wake UP Early!

 Waking up earlier to add time to your day

I can't tell you how many books that I've read that have told me to wake up earlier to add extra time to your day. When I first started reading these books, I thought man these authors are crazy. 

What are they smoking? 

Then I decided to start listening to them. 

I set my alarm clock 15 minutes earlier on the first day. I started waking up at 5:45. The next week I set my alarm 15 minutes earlier again, and got up at 5:30.

Now I wake up without an alarm clock just before 4:30 every day without even thinking about it. 

It is our great thing!

Here's what I found by waking up earlier. 

When it comes time to go to bed in the evening, I'm ready to go to sleep. I'm bedded down by 9 o'clock, and asleep by 9:30- 10pm every night.

When I get up at 4:30, I have time to do everything I want to do before anyone in my house ever thinks about opening their eyes. 

I get so much work done in the morning before any of my kids get out of bed.  

We all have a magic time and I've discovered that my magic time is between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. If I can have that & not be disturbed. my creativity levels soar higher than any other time of the day.

Here's my recommendation for you. 

Start this week by waking up 15 minutes earlier. Then do the same thing next week 15 minutes earlier again. See what it does for you, see how it changes the amount of work you get done. 

Let me know after you try it. What were your results?

In the comments tell me what time you're getting up I'd love to know

PS. I almost forgot, never hit the snooze button! 

NEW Short Haul Exemption Takes Effect 9/29/2020

NEW SHE

Let's talk about the new Short Haul Exemption rules coming out soon.

FMCSA announced the other day that they will be changing the Short Haul Exemption rules across-the-board. 

This is a great thing for all companies that operate under this exemption & some that will be able to operate under it now!!

You see right now a CDL driver can only work 12 hours a day. They also have to stay within a 100 air mile radius of their start location to use the short haul exemption.  

While non-CDL CMV drivers can work upto a 14 hour day. They have to stay within a 150 air mile radius of their home base. 

We found when you try to teach the differences to the drivers that they struggle to understand the differences. Especially if you're trying to teach it to people who operate both Non-CDL CMV’s & CDL vehicles.

We are excited to announce that FMCSA has just announced that most likely by October 1st 2020 all drivers will be able to operate under the NEW short haul exemption rules.  

The rule will state that everybody, CDL and non-CDL commercial drivers can operate: 14 hour days.  It also says that they need to stay within a 150 air mile radius of their home base.  

That's HUGE how many companies will be able have their CDL drivers operate under the NEW short haul exemptions

Short Haul exemption & the 70 Limit for CMV drivers

Short Haul Exemption and 70 Hour Limit

There are tons of things to talk about under the Short Haul Exemption, but we're not going to get into the weeds today. What we're going to focus on is the 70 hours in 8-day or 60 hours in 7-day rule.

Did you know that under the short haul exemption you still have to abide by the 70 hours in 8-day or 60 hours in 7-day rule.?

So many times we forget about that part of the regulation.  

The Short Haul Exemption gives us the ability to work up to 12 hours a day, for CDL drivers and up to 14 hours a day for non-CDL commercial drivers. 

A lot of companies forget that even though we can work 12 hours a day we can't go over 70 hours in an 8-days. Without taking a 34 hour reset or 24 hour reset if you're in the oilfield.

Many drivers think they can drive 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.  That's a total of….  I'm horrible at math, let me get my calculator, out hold on… 84 hours in 7 days but they're wrong.

No matter what exemption you're operating under, you must abide by the 70 hours in 8-days or 60 hours in 7-days regulation.

We know that there was a TON of valuable content in the post.

We'd love to hear back from you.  Give us a comment on something else you'd like to learn more about.

Family road trips are the BEST!

When we first started our business, we weren’t making the progress as quickly as we wanted.  We couldn’t figure out why either.  We kept moving forward but it was at the speed of a snail.  It didn’t feel like we were making any headway. 

In the middle of this, we took an extended family vacation where we loaded up our 4 kids in the car and drove from Colorado to Red Lake Canada.  If you’ve never been to Red Lake, I’ll give you a quick rundown on it.  You go straight north from where Minnesota and Canada meet about 7 hours.  It was an awesome drive.  We spent 24 hours in the car and saw countless awe-inspiring things along the route. 

It was on the drive where we really had time to reconnect with each other and talk.  That’s one the reasons we love driving so much.  All of the time to reconnect as a family is amazing.  During those times we talked about the business and where we wanted it to go what we really wanted to be able to accomplish with it.  Without ever writing a word, we made our business plan and set up goals. 

We spent a week in Canada and enjoyed every second of the time.  We rented a small fishing boat for a day and caught tons of fish.  Our youngest son caught his first Pike!  Our oldest caught a small mouth bass.  Which we didn’t see as a huge accomplishment but after talking to the locals, they said that anyone who catches a bass in those lakes is truly blessed.  We took a biplane tour of the lake, taking off and landing on the lake several times.  In the air, we saw a couple of bears and even were blessed with the privilege of seeing two Bull Moose.  What is the plural of moose, meese?  Who knows.  Lol.  My wife and went out one evening and found an ole dirt road and went for a drive until sunset.  It was an amazing experience all together.  Oh yeah who could forget we had to try poutine, a Canadian fry dish.  It was great ehhh. Lol.

After we left Red Lake, we headed off to Pennsylvania, another 24 hours in the car.  During the trip, our entire family continued to reconnect.  Our kids were getting along great; my wife and I were able to talk more about every aspect of life.  We had just left Wisconsin when it hit us both at the same time.  Why don’t we name God as the CEO of our company?  It will no longer be ours but we will run his business!  I would say that there was just about, as much as excitement about that as when we found out we were pronate with our kids!  It happened almost like a movie.  We both said it at the same time. 

There wasn’t much discussion in the matter after that.  It was decided, we didn’t own the company any longer, God did.  It was our job to work for him and run it the way he wants.  We would pray before all meetings, we would include verses on all of our web pages.  It was his company we are just here to be the hands that will run it, we are his stewards. 

We started making the changes necessary immediately.  We stopped referring to the company as mine or ours and called as it was.  I changed my title from CEO to COO and published that GOD was the new CEO of Eclipse.  Almost immediately, the wheels started turning again and the company started moving forward. 

We spent the next week in PA at a family camp.  It was a blast!!  Our kids loved it.  If you ever get the chance to be chaperones at a family camp do it.  Take your kids and let them have some freedom while you watch, join in, and enjoy it.  We will never forget these times. 

From there we drove to West Texas for work, another 24 hour drive.  Spend the week there and headed back to colorful Colorado after that. 

This trip was one that changed our lives forever.  We made decisions that allowed us to let go of stress.  We reconnected as a family and grew in ways that we never thought possible.  I am convinced that if we wouldn’t have taken this trip then our business wouldn’t have God as its CEO.  I am so greatful that he led us to take time for us to enjoy our family.  He led me to know that time is our most valuable commodity.  We can always make more money, we can always make new friends, but we can never get a second of our day back. 

Your kids are only young once don’t squander your time with them.