Last summer, while on my long commute from Sacramento to San Francisco (which I’m happy to say I don’t do anymore), the idea of writing a book popped into my head. Ironically the topic has nothing to do with what you might expect, like web design, technology, etc.

The book is about freedom. WTF Mike? Yeah I know it’s a bit odd so let me explain. While on that drive I had a lot to think about like skyrocketing gas prices, an illegal war for oil in Iraq, a corrupt government, a crashing real estate market, my looming 40th birthday, and really wanting a better life for me and my family. Yeah kind of a depressing drive… but the worse part was that I felt helpless to do anything about it, except maybe the things I can control that directly impacted my life.

And then it hit me… no no not a Prius. I realized a simple truth. There are little things each of us can do to improve our own situations. In other words, every little choice we make has some kind of positive and/or negative effect on how we perceive our freedom. This led me to a second realization; we experience an increase of freedom when there are fewer limitations on us. I know this sounds simple and a bit naive but it seems to make sense. We feel freer when there is an absence of external controlling forces.

I started to feel better because I felt like I had a little more control. I started brain storming little and big choices I could make that would start making positive effects on my life. The first one was to stop commuting in this big truck. OK it’s not that big but it is definitely has an apatite for gas. Another was to spend less money on eating out. The list grew.

On the way home that day I knew that I should start writing it down. Being a web geek a blog was the first thing I thought of. But I had heard of lulu.com too, an online self-publishing website. After some back and forth and sporadic writing I’ve decided to blog a book. Start with a blog because it seems normal and natural too me and then once I have enough content download the database, extract the text, edit and build a book in word processor or page layout software.

Right now I think the book will be titled Do It Yourself Freedom. But I’ll worry about the book later, for now the blog is DIYfreedom.com. It is definitely a work in progress and I’ll keep it quiet until I get it cleaned up. In the mean time any feedback is welcome.

Basically it’s a bunch of things you and I can do to positively impact our lives and perception of freedom.There aren’t 101 of them yet but I have list of things I plan to add. If you have one to suggest I’d love to hear it.